Oklahoma districts vary widely in rates of remediation

BY RANDY ELLIS Comments 0
Published: October 11, 2009
Modified: October 12, 2009 at 10:50 am

Where Oklahoma students attend high school appears to make a difference in how likely it is they will need to take remedial courses in college.

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What they said

Oklahomans who answered an online question provided interesting comments on personal experiences with college remediation courses. Here’s what some had to say:

"I was on the 10-year plan. I had gone to school two years full time, but still had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I dropped out and went to work full time, then started back at night school at six hours a semester for the next 7 1/2 years. My employer paid 75 percent of tuition as I worked full time and went to school.” — Dave Koeneke, executive director of the Oklahoma Safety Council

"I took a remedial algebra course in college. I struggled in math in high school and didn’t have confidence to plunge in with a for-credit algebra course. The remedial course gave me a lot of confidence so that when I took the for-credit algebra course it was fairly easy and I got a B, of which I remain proud today!”

— Jim Stafford, communications specialist for i2e

"I had struggled in high school with algebra, so when I went back to college in North Carolina, I had to take a remedial algebra class. Thank the Lord because I had the most amazing professor who ACTUALLY wanted me to learn and understand algebra. ... My instructor in high school approached it like you should know this and if you don’t, then you are stupid! So I aced that class as well as the Business Math that followed.”

— Sandra Stewart, Devon Energy Production Co., L.P.

RANDY ELLIS,

STAFF WRITER

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That’s not a surprise to many parents, some of whom go to great lengths to buy homes within school districts with good academic reputations.

But are those reputations deserved?

In the case of Edmond Public Schools, the answer appears to be yes. Only 11.1 percent of Edmond North High School students, 11.9 percent of Edmond Memorial High School students and 17.3 percent of Edmond Santa Fe High School students needed remedial courses at Oklahoma colleges.

But two large suburban Tulsa high schools, Union and Broken Arrow, struggled just to break the 36.8 percent state average. Union students had a 35.6 percent college remediation rate, while Broken Arrow’s rate was 33.4 percent.

Stillwater and Norman would appear to be similar college towns, but while only 11.3 percent of Stillwater students needed remediation at state colleges, it was needed by 32 percent of Norman High School students and 19.7 percent of Norman North students.

Small, rural schools were among the best and worst in preparing their students for college.

Only 9.1 percent of Garfield County’s Garber High School students needed college remediation courses, the best performance by an Oklahoma public school. However, 100 percent of students who attended Blair High School in Jackson County and Porum High School in Muskogee County needed remediation courses.

Private schools performed well, for the most part.

For example, only 8.8 percent of Oklahoma Christian School students, 12.1 percent of Bishop McGuinness High School students, 12.5 percent of Christian Heritage Academy students and 21.4 percent of Bishop Kelley High School students needed remedial college classes in Oklahoma.